Nimbin Community Radio 2NimFM caught this exclusive interview with Mari Alkatiri when he was in Australia to talk about his vision for Timor Leste as a potential bridge for Asian, Pacific, and Western cultures. Timor Leste is unusually well placed for this role historically, culturally, and linguisticly, having kept its' unique identity through successive waves of colonisation by the Portugese, invasion by the Japanese in WWII, and occupation by the Indonesians in 1970s and 1990s.

Here is the first four minutes of his well received presentation at the Australian National University. Following is an exclusive ten minute interview with community radio 2NimFM just before Mari Alkatiri's meeting with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Mari fields questions about the need for justice for the people of Timor Leste, the controversial Peace March, now deferred because of the threats of repression from the current Prime Minister, and a broad outline of how the Fretilin Party (of which he is the General Secretary) is organised. Fretilin ranks are open to the younger generation, which is strongly represented in the party organisation.

Fred Fuentes, back from two weeks in Bolivia talks about renewed power to the people and the popular organisations, after the Morales government survived the crisis of last September. Bolivian society showing new openings and seeking new ways forward.

Fred Fuentes in Caracas, just back from Bolivia after two weeks of assessing post-crisis Bolivia. In this section he talks about the new strengths of the Morales government, from the popular social organisations, and support from other Latin American nations. The US and the right are caught on the back foot. US influence in the region has been significantly weakened, with many regions refusing to accept US aid money.

Part 1 of 3.Fred Fuentes returns to Caracas after two weeks in Bolivia assessing the situation there after the attempted right wing coup last month. Morales seems to have outmanouevred the ultra-right's attempts to unseat him and appears to have made his own position stronger, while his enemies are in disarray. He is so confident of his support in the popular social movements now that he is holding another referendum next month.

With the onset of the Wall Street crash, Venezuela invited 40 political economists to Caracas, to debate the crisis and propose alternatives. The conference titled ‘Responses from the South to the Global Economic Crisis’. Chaired by Venezuela’s Planing and Development Minister Haiman El Troudi and Luis Bonilla from the Centro Internacional Miranda, the group presented papers and debated for four days, before presenting the Venezuelan Government with a joint statement.

Dr. Tim Anderson was one of the Political Economists invited an he spoke to Nimbin Community Radio 2Nim FM about how the Latin American countries are preparing for the imminent world recession. Unlike the more developed nations Latin American countries are investing in the social and public sector rather than bailing out the private sector, to buffer themselves from the Wall Street meltdown.

Burke Stansbury talks about the CISPES attendance at the Social Forum of the Americas in Guatemala recently, where representatives from Latin American countries discussed the meltdown of the US financial system. The recent gains of social organisations and movements could well be a buffer for those who will be most affected by recession, but historically such gains have brought on a backlash by entrenched interests. The establishment by the US of an International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador has seen a corresponding increase in the number of disappearances and extra-judicial murders and assassinations of individuals involved in social movements and the opposition party FMLN, and there is a strange reluctance to allow outsiders to see the curriculum or the teaching methods. ILEAs have been set up in a number of key Latin American countries, and are seen as a replacement for the notorious US based School of the Americas, which was closed down in the 90s due to its association with the training of some of Latin America's worst military dictatorships, and the teaching of 'death squad' methods.

Coral Winter talks about the launch of a book she has co-authored with Jim McIlroy based on their experiences of a year spent in Venezuela, and some 400 interviews they conducted with people involved in the grass roots activities that are building the new Venezuela

Australian solidarity activists Jim McIlroy and Coral Wynter spent 2006 in Venezuela working for the socialist newspaper Green Left Weekly, reporting regularly on their experiences. They interviewed dozens of leaders and grassroots activists in the people’s revolution that is sweeping Venezuela and inspiring a revival of the popular movement across Latin America.

They were also heavily involved in three solidarity brigades organised during 2006 by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network — the first in January after the World Social Forum in Caracas, the second during the May Day celebrations in Venezuela and the third in the lead-up to the end-of-year presidential elections.

Voices from Venezuela is the fruit of their work. The end of 2006 represented a high point in the revolution, with Chavez winning a massive endorsement for his project of constructing ‘socialism of the 21st century’ with 63% of the vote in the December 3 presidential contest. Since then the revolutionary process has continued to move forward but is also facing significant challenges.

Voices from Venezuela gives a vivid and unique picture of a profound upheaval as ordinary people struggle against all odds to carry out a sharp change of direction in their country and shape a brighter future for themselves, Latin America and the oppressed and exploited of the whole world.

Jose Teixeira, Fretilin Parliamentarian talks about the last week in the Parliament of Timor Leste, when a rebuke was delivered by the leader of the Fretilin team. He goes on to explain the latest rumblings in the National Police of Timor Leste, and the mistakes made earlier that have generated the current tensions.

Lara Pullin with the latest update on the lead up to El Salvador's elections next year. As the FMLN continues to outstrip the governing ARENA coalition in the polls, the government politicians are resorting to more and more desperate tactics. Recently the foreign minister for El Salvador argued in the US for the kind of intervention used just a few years ago to swing the results in favour of the ARENA coalition. The US Ambassador in El Salvador assured a visiting delegation that the US did not intend to intervene again, but with the ARENA foreign minister lobbying furiously in the US, anything could happen.

[Picture: Schafik Handel, FMLN leader and Presidential candidate in the 2004 elections that he narrowly lost. Some say it was stolen from him. Although he died recently, his charisma remains.]

In the final part of this interview Dr. Dominguez talks about the reasons President Morales called in the military, declaring martial law, only as a last resort. He explains some of the background of the military and its role in Bolivia's turbulent history.

In the second part of this interview, Dr. Francisco Dominguez talks about the regional implications, and the implications for Latin America, of the coup attempt in Bolivia. A surprising number of Latin American countries have rallied in support of the President Evo Morales' central government, and have rejected US interference in Latin American affairs - including governments that in the past have been traditionally aligned with the US administration. Far from 'dividing and ruling' the coup attempt in Bolivia has rallied almost all of Latin America in a united front. It is an historic first, with some far reaching long term effects that at this stage, can only be guessed at by most Western observers. The role of Venezuela, which has broken the political stranglehold on its economic autonomy has been critical.

Dr. Francisco Dominguez, from the Department of Latin American and Brazilian studies of Middleton University in London was on the phone to community radio 2NimFM with some of the details, and the background of the events in Bolivia over the last few weeks, and the implications of some of the latest developments. On September 11 (the anniversary of the 1973 coup in Chile) President Evo Morales expelled the US Ambassador for his role in encouraging violence and racist thuggery led by prominent avowedly right wing public figures in resource rich regions. These figures are leading a drive to 'break away' from the central government of Bolivia, but their tactics include violence, burning, looting, destruction of radio stations that don't support their agenda, and racist vilification and public humiliation of indigenous people. The last straw was a genocidal shooting down of scores of unarmed indigenous people who had gathered in protest against the racially motivated violence.